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Last year, Washington became one of two states to legalize marijuana for recreational, rather than simply medical, use. And a week ago, the state formalized rules for selling legal pot that will allow retail outlets throughout the state sell up to an ounce of weed per customer.

Those rules do not, apparently, apply to thrift stores.

Last Thursday, an employee at a North Seattle second-hand shop was going through the store’s donation bin, seeing what the store could resell, when he came across a garbage bag. Nothing unusual about that.

But instead of the usual five-years-out-of-style shirts or beat-up sneakers, the bag contained 2.5 pounds of marijuana.

The employee called police and handed the pot over to them. The rogue marijuana was marked for routine destruction by the Seattle cops, but the incident did prompt them to post a new notice, reminding the public of what is okay and not okay to leave at a thrift shop.

“Donating to thrift shops is a terrific way to give a second life to your well-loved velcro sneakers, keyboards or flannel zebra jammies,” wrote the SPD in its press release. However, thrift stores cannot accept the following items:

•Tires•Soiled mattresses•Laptops•Large bags of marijuana

We thought this reminder might be helpful.”

Up to one ounce of marijuana is legal to possess in Washington so the police press release left open the question of small bags of marijuana.

Though Washington plans to operate a "tightly regulated and controlled" legal marijuana market, there are still numerous vague points in the new state rules. The law legalizing possession said nothing about legalizing public display or use of marijuana. So it seems like the new, retail pot shops maybe need to keep a low profile, at least.